Stephen Lendman: BBC guilty of venality in its misreporting on Venezuela

VHeadline.com commentarist Stephen Lendman writes: Listeners and viewers expecting to find a safe alternative to the corporate-controlled media by turning to the BBC better reconsider their choice just based on the vaunted news organization's reporting on Venezuela and specifically on the misinformation it put out in an online piece on October 8 titled -- "Mass Venezuela opposition rally."

It claims "Tens of thousands of people have marched through the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, in support of the main opposition candidate, Manuel Rosales."

If readers of this piece just went to VHeadline.com, they'd have gotten a much different picture -- from the actual photo of those "tens of thousands" that, in fact, may have been all of a single ten thousand or so in the streets in a show of some kind of tepid support at best and not what anyone would call "mass."

Shame on BBC and its reporter in Caracas Greg Morsbach for lying for the power interests he serves so he reports what they want put out even if it's not true.

Based in Caracas for the BBC, correspondent Morsbach surely knows a massive crowd when he sees one as Hugo Chavez draws them every time he addresses a rally that routinely turns out en masse in a tsunami of red-shirted supporters to see and hear him. He surely can tell the difference between a huge Chavez crowd and the puny one for Mr. Rosales on October 8, many of whom were likely just on the Caracas streets and curious to see what was going on.

The BBC must think this kind of misreporting is the way to maintain a gilt-edged reputation as a reliable news service. The sad truth is that reputation got tarnished many years ago and went to pieces in the shameless reporting the UK-based news organization did in the run-up to the Iraq war when it's entire news operation went into overdrive functioning as a state propaganda service.

But back to the Morsbach report in which he claims the so-called mass rally "filled the main avenues of the city center (and) was the biggest opposition rally Venezuela has seen since early 2004."

It may have been about the only one of any size seen, and it may have partially filled a single avenue, but as the actual photo shows, it thinned out dramatically quite fast after moving away from its core "mass." Correspondent Morsbach may be near-sighted and failed to notice. Surely on BBC pay he can afford new glasses to help him see more clearly so he can report more accurately in the future.

Morsback shamelessly continues: "Young and old (how could he tell even in a smallish-sized crowd) took to the streets to throw their weight behind the campaign of Mr. Rosales... Many claim they were seeking liberty and democracy (did he crash the crowd and interview them) and that made Mr. Rosales their only option."

Finally, at the end of the article, Morsback reported something factual, though hardly newsworthy: "For some (maybe most) it was simply a day out to enjoy the sunshine..." But he quickly reverted to the role he's paid to do as a propagandist claiming: "If Mr. Rosales can keep up this kind of pressure against his rival, the election results may not necessarily be a foregone conclusion."

Pressure?

The only kind he cites in his piece is Rosales' weak-kneed comments that Venezuela was "at (an unexplained) crossroads," and Mr. Chavez was "giving away Venezuela's oil wealth to foreign powers (absurd and false as anyone understanding ALBA knows)."

Morsback ends his piece on a high note though as he may have had a pang of conscience at the end of his otherwise shameless piece of black journalism.

* It forces him to admit that "Mr. Chavez still enjoys a clear lead in opinion polls because of a sense of loyalty that poor and working class voters feel toward him."

But Morsback's conscience pangs weren't strong enough to get him to try explaining why...

Stephen Lendman
 lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net

* Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at  lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net -- also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com

 http://www.vheadline.com/lendman